If your organization is using third-party contact center services, make sure they integrate deeply with your unified communications environment.

When evaluating contact center platforms from unified communications and voice-over-IP providers, an important distinction must be made. Some of these providers have developed contact center platforms in-house, and they've usually done the same with their flagship UC or VoIP offerings. These providers will have native integration between UC and contact center services, and that might separate them from the pack when considering the broader playing field.

In contrast, some UC providers have only recently entered the contact center space through third-party partnerships with established contact center vendors. As you do your research, it will be easy to determine who these contact center partners are. Don't be surprised if more than one UC provider is using the same partner for contact center services.

For these third-party partnerships, you'll need to determine how deep the UC and contact center integration is. Third-party vendors don't usually support all partners equally. So, you'll want a clear understanding of the relationship, as well as the joint roadmap for deeper integration, new features and customer support.

Bundled offerings of UC and contact center platforms will be mostly or fully cloud-based products. If your current platforms are on premises, you must have a broader discussion about using the cloud for communications applications. While the cloud is clearly the direction in which vendors are heading, enterprises still have hesitations and are moving more cautiously than vendors would like.

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